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Author
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Topic: Overused cliches
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jrose
babble intern
Babbler # 13401
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posted 06 February 2008 07:03 AM
I'm sure I'm not the only babbler who is driven insane by overused cliches, both in everyday speech and the media.This blog has been my distraction of the day. quote:
Banned for Life is devoted to those expressions so gratingly overused that they should be forever banned from the nation's news reports. George Orwell put it best: "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."
From: Ottawa | Registered: Oct 2006
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Catchfire
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4019
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posted 06 February 2008 07:08 AM
quote:
A "surge" of overused words and phrases formed a "perfect storm" of "post-9/11" cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned.Choosing from among 2,000 submissions, the public relations department at Michigan's Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie targeted 19 affronts to the English language in its well-known jab at the worlds of media, sports, advertising and politics. The contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence.
A Perfect Storm of cliches
From: On the heather | Registered: Apr 2003
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rural - Francesca
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14858
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posted 06 February 2008 09:10 AM
quote:
Originally posted by 1234567:
"I beg to differ"Such a bullshit thing to say....who the fuck begs to differ?
ummm errrr, I do  Was one of my mother's favourite expressions: Me: I'm going to the movies
Mom: I beg to differ...you haven't ___________ "synergy" is one I dislike and "innovative" just pisses me off - it's code for "jump through hoops"
From: the backyard | Registered: Dec 2007
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martin dufresne
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11463
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posted 06 February 2008 10:37 AM
Hmmm... (here's one already) But why do we use clichés? It's easy enough to rail at the ones that peeve us in others, but isn't a fact that each of one does, at times, resort to some? Why?
- Why not?
- Right. I can think of reasons for someone to want to advance something controversial in a 'careful' cliché-ed, less confrontational expression, such as Francesca's mom used to do with "I beg to differ".
I know that I ofte use them myself because, not being at ease in English, I often fall back on set phrases, which I find fun because I am never sure of their precise meaning. Some clichés I hear people deplore I have never heard or read myself so I often feel like a semanticist in a dictionary store even if I' sure I sound like an elephant in a porcelain shop...
I also like to mix and match, using clichés to turn them on your ear, surprising even myself with the result.
How about you? Ready to own up to 'guilty pleasure' in using clichés?
"Panic Girl" did, in the 2005 thread referenced above: quote:
I love verbing. I do it in a very silly manner though. For example, instead of asking a friend if she would like to go for brunch, I say "Do you want to omelet today?" Good times.
[ 06 February 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]
From: "Words Matter" (Mackinnon) | Registered: Dec 2005
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